NORTHERN DISTRICTS M ODEL ENGINEERING SOCIETY (PERTH) INC.

March — April 2021 Heroes or not, they are a credit to our society THEY say they are not heroes, but most of us would beg to differ... those men and women who put their lives and their properties on the line as they fight treacherous fires for the greater good of their communities. During the February Perth Hills bushfires, a couple of our members were at the fire front doing what, for them, comes naturally during such times, but for rural communities it can mean the difference between life and death; a future or devastation. One of our members had to comfort his fire-fighting colleague as he watched his home burn down while he was out helping others. Les said over 300 different brigades turned up to help, Our two club members who fought the fires from start including both volunteer and career firemen, “and to finish were Les Harris and Paul Costall, while other without them all our houses would have been lost”. members in the fire zone, such as Charles Coppack and Luckily his own house was spared by a sudden wind Paul Arney, had amazing escapes, although Paul did change when the fire front approached, sending the fire suffer some losses. north-west instead of westerly. Even after the fires had been contained, their job was “The fire missed us by about 500m but I was with still not done, as ongoing patrols were required to (fellow volunteer) Nathanial on the Monday night and he ensure there were no further outbreaks. watched his house burn down,” he said. During the week of the fires, Les did a crew change “Nathanial went on and did four more crew changes every day, meaning he put in five attendances – what he that week, as did two other fire fighters from our brigade says is “normal for a large fire”. On February 9, a who also lost their houses. This, unfortunately, is one of couple of days after the fires had been contained, Les the things we have to accept.” (Continued on page 3) and son Richard were back on an eight-hour patrol shift.

Inside this issue: Above: A Volunteer brigade President’s report 2 approaching the scene of the fire in Gidgegannup. Technical matters 4 School holiday runs 5 Right: The Sikorsky Erickson Air Crane dropping 7,000 litres of Stan’s 90th birthday 7 water into the fire zone. Members’ run days 9 Photos courtesy Melanie 10 McGoldrick — Lancelin BR 4MT locomotive 12 Volunteer Fire & Rescue President’s Report for February 2021 I’LL start off with some positive news for Although its’s not immediately obvious the last period, which is the fact that our from the numbers, our waste management has local MLA visited the club on our last run reduced from a cost of $413 to $186.60 - $93 day and advised that a grant of $20,000 had … a net turnaround of $506.60 from last year. been approved, primarily for a public BBQ Thanks to Andy Molnar and Steve Briggs for should Labor win the next State election. setting up the collection system. We urge you This will allow us to install a new public to bring your cans and bottles down to the BBQ facility in the picnic grounds, with club so that we can continue to run our waste some money left over for something else at no net cost to the club. (to be voted on by members). We will need President’s Report One of our current projects, the fabrication to decide whether to make the BBQ electric By Geoff Wilkinson of the first of the raised carriage sidings in the or gas and we will vote on that once we big shed, is starting to take shape, with Steve know the full cost implications of each option. Briggs and Richard Turner having bent up a number of We have sent to all members via email some recent legs at Ron’s place during the week and Andy Molnar has correspondence relating to the AALS insurance. been drawing up the ramp sections which, cost permitting, Unfortunately, a number of derailment incidents in could be made of aluminium — the decision on final the Eastern States have resulted in injury to passengers configuration of the ramp is still to be debated. and a number of insurance claims that have had the Russell Williams has been busy getting quotes for the effect of increasing our insurance premiums. This is a work required to install the new kitchen entry. The City of big wake-up call for us although the proposed Stirling will not allow us to do this work ourselves unscheduled visits by AALS inspectors to clubs should because it is a modification to a City building and they not be of concern to us, as I believe we are fully require a certified builder to undertake the work. In the compliant. Our Competent Person is very active, as has meanwhile, the kitchen air conditioner is scheduled to be been our Compliance Committee. We do, perhaps, installed early March. need to re-focus and consider the seriousness and As mentioned previously, we are starting to refurbish the possible flow-on effects of derailments. raised track carriages as our most recent workshop project. We have already started work on upgrading the All members are invited to help with this project which is raised track carriages, but there are always safety to be carried out entirely in our workshop. If you are improvements that can be made anywhere around our willing to be involved, please get in touch with our facilities. This will be addressed in greater depth over workshop manager, Bill Beattie, or Phill Gibbons. This is the next period. One point I will make is that our an excellent opportunity to learn about carriage insurance premium is simply a cost of doing business construction ... No prior experience required! and should not be the driving motivation here; people Another project that Russell Williams is heading up is have been hurt and that is the take-away for us. We the replacement of all emergency trackside fire hoses with don’t want anybody to suffer any injury on our more appropriate equipment. This project has the potential premises, or at any other club venue. to become bigger than Ben Hur because the ring main may The two school holiday run days and public run day need to be replaced, but it’s something that we will have in January went off as well as could be expected, with to tackle at some point, and we are aiming to get it the unfortunate interruption to the public run afternoon completed during winter 2021. session. Patron numbers are down from last year, of At the time of writing, the bookings for the February 28 course, but we seem to have found a manageable run day are looking very similar to January — forecasting number by limiting the on-line bookings to 150 people. 150 people for the morning session and possibly 80 for the On top of that we always get a number of walk-ins. afternoon. Many thanks to Paul James and others for the Stan Armstrong’s 90th birthday celebration in January work on the grounds on a very hot Tuesday, February 23, (see article on page 7) was another great evening, in preparation for the weekend run. thanks to all the helpers and bell ringers! We all wish The run day for March, 2021, having been set up some Stan congratulations on reaching this milestone. What time ago, has two sessions, but we have set up all the a busy month January was! remaining months as morning sessions only at this time. We have printed out financial reports for the period Whilst we can put the afternoon sessions in place now, it from September 30, 2020 to February 23, 2021 and is felt that the membership needs to review its appetite to have put them up on the whiteboard in the club room continue with two sessions each run day past March. foyer. Please feel free to query any items on these Our Saturday morning club days are starting to attract reports. more members, (continued on page 3)

Page 2 Perth Hills fires (cont…) (Continued from page 1) Paul said this was not unusual, with brigades from as Les said he was finding it hard to accept the general far north as Lancelin and south to Esperance being view that victims of fire could always rebuild if insured. brought in, as well as career fire fighters and DPAW “Most of our brigade are younger than 50. I am 75 in (Dept of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions). May and my wife is one year behind me. Yes, I have Paul said the community response had been amazing, insurance, but I don’t have years on my side,” he said. “If with people coming in with sandwiches, drinks, etc. we lose our house, it will take at least five years to get an “It brings out the best in people,” he said. “We don’t insurance payout, go through building/planning consider ourselves heroes, as the media suggests, we permissions and build again. I don’t have those years, as I are just doing our bit. Thanks to all the NDMES would be 80 and possibly not even be here. members for their concern for us, it’s appreciated.” “Also, as we have been married for 52 years, all our Fortunately, Paul’s Mt Helena property escaped the memories are tied up in our house and belongings. Both fires. our parents are dead so even their memories are here. So Paul Arney has a different story to tell, with his new when I hear the younger ones saying I am despondent house on Mayo Road in Gidgegannup surviving but an about the property losses, they don’t seem to have any older house on his property along with some sheds not thought for the older people these days. Perhaps they so fortunate. should talk to their parents more often.” “Yes, the new house survived, just as it was designed Paul Costall said he was on first call on Monday, to do, and without sprinklers. And it protected my wife February 1, when the fires kicked off and was sector and kids, who defended the house until I joined them commander for that shift, about 5 hours, at Wooroloo. later from work, after which we looked after our place “This was mainly asset protection, stopping running and some of the neighbours. I also did several shifts on fires in paddocks and trying to sort out the units out there, the fire ground during the week.” but it’s like herding cats and, to be honest, everyone is just Paul said the old house on his property did not fare trying to do their best,” he said. anywhere near as well. “We were at the scene when the Forrestfield truck was “Unfortunately, my workshop is a total loss, Myford caught in a burn over. The crew got out OK, but the truck mill and all. The two locos are intact. The Tich I will was just a black hulk on the roadside (many will have seen just tidy up and ‘plinth’; the Simplex I will go over the TV footage of this). The fire was travelling so fast we carefully once I have a new workshop and see what couldn’t stop it. can be done, particularly as I inherited it from Eric “The next three days we were up near Charles Webb and it was a particularly fine locomotive even Coppack’s property on Berry Road and around Reen and before you get into the sentimental value. O’Brien Roads doing asset protection and stopping spot- “I haven’t even pulled out the frames for my 5” ‘W’ overs. The Mount Helena brigade had done 18 shifts so class to see what state they are in. But I am much far with two trucks and was now patrolling the area better off than many. I have my family, my house, our looking for hotspots for another couple of days.” water tanks and we can continue on. Insurance will put us in a better position.” President’s Report (cont…) Charles Coppack was also in the Gidgegannup fire zone and on February 2, the day after the fire started, (Continued from page 2) said the fires fortunately passed about 3 km to the with Dave Barlow getting a bit of workshop time and south of his property. At that time he had no power and others having a good chin wag upstairs! Now, to get some was surrounded by “lots of burnt devastation”. His locos running on Saturday mornings and it’s probably property remained part of the “emergency warning time for another show and tell for stationary engines and zone” for several more days, but he has recently said model engineering projects. In summary: all is OK with no property damage and his power and  We’re still financially sound but we have to be careful internet now working. because our earnings aren’t what they used to be. Other members in the fire zone who were not  We need to become more vigilant in our attention to affected include Ron Collins (Parkerville), Bill Walker safety and reporting. (Sawyers Valley), Ed Brown (Mundaring), Bob Hutt  Ongoing equipment and grounds maintenance must (Mundaring) and Bill Wall (Henley Brook). always be front and centre. Our thoughts are with everyone who was involved Most of all, we need to make sure we can all continue and those who have been impacted by this devastating doing the things we like to do. event. Geoff Wilkinson, president Article by Tom Winterbourn

Page 3 Resetting a cylinder block for boring A little while ago, I bored a set of loco 11 cylinders out to /16” diameter. Some time later, I discovered that this size was for pulling scale coaches. For pulling adult 3 passengers the required size was /4” bore. So how does one quickly and accurately reset the cylinder block in the four-jaw chuck to rebore it? My solution is to turn a steel bar somewhat longer than the cylinder block to a neat fit in the bore. Fit this into the block, Engineering Matters mount the cylinder into the four-jaw chuck, with Boiler Inspector then use the DTI to set the bar so it runs true Phill Gibbons both close to the jaws and at the far end. How to reset a previously bored cylinder block accurately in the lathe. When the bar runs true at both ends then the cylinder block must also be running true. Now remove the bar Tip: fit the DTI magnetic block to the lathe saddle then and you can bore out the block with confidence that it just wind the saddle up and down to easily check the bar will be concentric to the old bore. for runout at each end — see photo above right. Phill Doug can’t make it this year, but… HE may be on the other side of the world, but Doug Pitney still thinks of us and our activities over there in his native Canada and is only too keen to share his progress on his pet project, a miniature carousel. He has been an annual visitor to our club for several years, staying for as long as three or four months. But COVID has put a stop to this and we won’t be seeing him this summer, although he is optimistic about returning soon. Confident as ever, he says: “I hope to get vaccinated soon and look for flights back to Perth!” During his time with us last summer, Doug put much time into his carousel, with his work featured in one of three articles on him in Steamlines in the first half of last year. Says Doug: “Carousel progress is good, thanks to a mini-lathe on loan, set up in my flat. The brass ‘olivers’ look great (twisted brass bracelet the shores of Okanagan Lake, 400km east of Vancouver in material for arthritic elbows!) Except for the weather British Columbia since he returned from Australia about and COVID numbers, all is good here.” 12 months ago. The log cabin is inaccessible during the It appears Doug has remained in Vancouver and has harsh winter months – and there has been that COVID not been back to his idyllic log cabin at Kelowna on thingy! Tom Winterbourn

Above right: Doug’s carousel with a For Sale - Brake controls menagerie of ceramic animals. George Palmer has a brand new, unused, set of remote brake control systems he has for sale. He bought them Left: Close-up detail from DNC System Technologies in NSW, thinking he of one of the horses. would use them on his new carriages, but he has decided to go for straight air brakes instead. The purchase cost was $325.00 but he is prepared to sell Photos: Doug Pitney them for $200.00. If you are interested, call George on 9248 5080.

Page 4 School holiday runs beat the heat AFTER the disappointment of a total fire ban preventing steam operation at the first of the school holiday runs on January 5, the steamers were back on January 19 and gave faultless displays. Both days were hot, in the high 30s, with the second run perhaps the more oppressive, but there was a good roll-up of members at both runs. The plans for January 5 had to be redrawn at the 11th hour after we learned about the total fire ban the previous night, but we were fortunate to have the services of the battery-powered locos of Allen Ward (“Waterloo”) and John Jenkins (“Jumbuck”) and the club’s orange diesel and 5” battery-powered loco. Highlight of the day was the presence of WA Transport and Planning Minister Rita Saffioti and her three children, accompanied by Balcatta MLA and Government Whip David Thomas. Away from the pressures of Government business, the minister looked relaxed as she rode various trains, flagged away a train in the station, sat and talked to members over a BBQ lunch and was then shown over our clubhouse by president Geoff Wilkinson. A new system of controlling trains in the station area was trialled, with the stationmaster controlling all station departures. This follows Above: Transport Minister Rita Saffioti flags away several recent potential incidents between converging through trains John Jenkin and “Jumbuck”. and station departures. The trial was a success and was extended to the following run, with Kelvin Davies the Station Master on both occasions. Steam made a welcome return on January 19, with Phill’s Juliet (driven by Dave Barlow), Tom’s Black 5 (Steve Briggs), and CMR visitor Terry Skinner’s loco “John Millman” on the GLT and Bill Wall’s “Speedy” (driven by Bill and Paul Costall) on the raised track. Allen Ward’s 5” “Waterloo” was also back on the GLT. There was good public support at both runs, given the hot weather. All carriages were COVID-sanitised after each journey at both runs. Article and photos by Tom Winterbourn

Above right: Paul Costall, driving Bill Wall’s Speedy about to enter the tunnel on the raised track.

Left: Dave Barlow bypasses the station driving Phill’s Juliet.

Above right: Allen Ward and “Waterloo” near the tunnel with a full load of passengers.

Right: Dave Robinson Steve Briggs conveying Transport Minister Rita Saffioti and heads for the tunnel driving her three children, driving the club’s battery-powered loco. the club’s big diesel.

Page 5 Shutdown – after a great morning session! PHEW! That was close! Our monthly public run on January 31 just beat the COVID lockdown, although the day was cut short after WA Premier Mark McGowan’s surprise announcement. The morning session from 10am to noon was pretty full on, with a “sell-out” crowd under the new TryBooking booking agency, but then the lockdown announcement was made just as the session was about to finish. It appears those booked in for the afternoon session got the message and there was a 100% “no show”. So, after lunch, it was decided at about 1:15pm to cancel the rest of the day. That said, it was a pretty full-on and successful morning session with sufficient locos to handle the demand for rides. Numbers were nowhere near our good runs in recent years, but we had no Above: Easier than driving buses! Steve Reeves looks pretty relaxed driving “Blowfly” on the raised track. ‘COVID thingy’ to contend with back then. Knowing we had our biggest crowd since the virus curtailed our activities last March, locos were fired up early and were hauling passengers well before the scheduled 10am start time. There were no fewer than seven steam locos and two diesel-outline locos in operation.

Above: The more you reduce the wind resistance, the faster you go! Well in theory, maybe. Paul Costall hams it up for the camera as he takes Above: Phill Gibbons watches the road ahead driving “Irma”. “Firefly” over the bridge.

On the ground level track we had Ron Collins’ Heidi, Phill Gibbons’ “Irma”, Tom Winterbourn’s Black 5 and John Jenkins’ “Jumbuck”. On the raised track were Bill Wall’s “Speedy”, the Blowflies of Paul Costall (“Firefly”), Paul James (“Bushfly”) and Steve Reeves (“Blowfly”) and the battery loco of Damien Outram. The run attracted a large number of members, who all enjoyed the usual BBQ lunch. Gray Slade was only recently issued with his steam ticket and he shared the driving on the Black 5 — and thoroughly enjoyed the new challenge. Gray Slade driving Tom’s Black 5 on his first public run day drive. Article and photos by Tom Winterbourn

Page 6 Stan celebrates his 90th in style OVER 30 members, their wives and family members attended a special event at the club on Saturday evening, January 20, to help long-time member Stan Armstrong celebrate his 90th birthday. There was good food (and wine for some!), socialising with some members we haven’t seen in a while, entertainment by bell ringers (Kelvin and Carol Davies), a group photo (at right) and some unusual locos out on the track. Stan was a little late celebrating his milestone birthday, as he was born on December 28, 1929, but he and wife Susan decided to steer clear of all the festive season in the latter half of December. Among Stan’s special guests was his grandson Darian Feast. Stan joined the club about 16 years ago, during Also relatively new to the club were Kelvin Davies’ Heidi the presidency of Milton Smith, after a lifetime of “Binna” and his “push-pull” hand trolley and “trailer” (photo work in the WA court system, and in more recent at bottom left). Kelvin bought the Heidi 30 years ago years he has been active at the Wednesday although it hasn’t seen much activity lately. However, its Parkerville Boiler Group meetings, building a second visit to Balcatta was blighted by injector problems, vertical boiler for a stationary . which were not apparent when it ran at the club’s Christmas Trackside activities at the birthday bash included party. So, Kelvin dropped the fire – only to see the injector the first firing and drive of Pete McMurray’s 5” start working! He then realised it was a low pressure injector! LNER A3 Pacific “Flying Scotsman” on the GLT. The hand trolley, which was driven/ridden by Stan’s While Pete said he was “really happy with the way grandson Darian, was also built about 30 years ago (using it ran”, he still has a few issues to sort out with the drawings from a magazine) for his wife Carol to use at injectors and relief valves. Then he will do the private functions at CMR. boiler lagging and start the painting process. The trailer, or guard’s van, was originally built to go at the An interesting piece of rear of trains hauled by “Binna”. auxiliary equipment seen One of the more interesting sights on the night was Darian on Pete’s “Flying working hard on the “push-pull” trolley (see photo below), Scotsman” was the twin hauling the guard’s van with Paul Costall (not a lightweight blast pipe blower, load by any stretch of the imagination)! creatively made from a Article and photos by Tom Winterbourn surplus cordless drill powered by an 18v battery (see photo at left).

Stan’s grandson Darian hard at work! Photo: Steve Reeves

Page 7 Railway items for sale Mick Fiora (of Fiora Machinery and long-time Castledare member) has a number of items for sale, from wheel castings through partly-built boilers, parts to build carriages and a partly built Heidi (pictured at right). A couple of photos below indicate some more of what’s available. For full details please contact Mick Fiora on 9356 1811 or email [email protected]

AMRA 2021 cancelled IT looks like the AMRA exhibition scheduled for the long weekend in June has once again been cancelled, due to uncertainty about what COVID restrictions may or may not be in force then. Disappointing news for those members who enjoy this event — part of the uncertain times we now live in. Special offer for members from E & J Winter

Page 8 January member’s run day ABOUT twelve members came to this event, which was a mild day. Phil Hartley has made some new piston valve liners and a blast nozzle for his BR standard class 4 tank. It now runs very freely and steams well. Bill Wall brought down his Speedy which is becoming a regular attendee at club events. Steve Briggs brought the Springbok. 1 New member Geoff Thompson brought his 7 /4” freelance Pacific “Elizabeth”. This was built by his father in 1994. It is based around Henry Greenly's Royal Scot.

Above: Phil Hartley with his much modified Class 4. February club run day AT the club run day on February 14, a few of us Meanwhile, on the Garden Railway, Garth Caesar and including Rob Gleave and myself fired up the club Neil Blinco had some good runs with their new locos and steamer and gave it a whirl, the first time it has been run rolling stock (photo below). for several months, I think. Article and photos by Steve Reeves There were a couple of minor niggles but it ran OK. The photo below shows Gray Slade driving it out of the station, on one of several laps round the track. Article and photo by Dave Barlow

Page 9 The Queen Street Mill in , Burnley THIS all started when I made the mistake of talking about how interesting I found the Queen Street Mill complex, and Jim grabbed me and said: “Why don’t you write an article about it!” I diligently started pulling facts together and then wondered why was it there in the first place. To start with, at right is a recent photo of the mill complex — lovely on the outside and frantic and noisy inside. I recall at school in Liverpool not concentrating too much on history, so writing this article has taken me back a bit to look at the development of the industry and the engineering initiatives that made it so efficient. The following notes have been pulled from various sources, Wikipedia being a gold mine, and it includes notes and photographs taken by NDMES member Rob Gleave and myself at the Mill. Above: The Queen Street Mill as it is today. I hope readers will forgive the odd date out of place, Image - Betty Longbottom (Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 2.0) and the occasional error in technological advance, but I have found it fascinating as I have pieced this summary political uncertainty in North America, during together, as to how the manufacture of cloth could have the Revolutionary War and later the American Civil War, had such an impact on society. Britain relied more heavily on imports from the British If you would like to see the engine in action, along Indian Raj to feed its cotton manufacturing industry. with video of the shed there is a video on Ports on the west coast of Britain, such YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2zLPEb8ZA8 as Liverpool, Bristol, and Glasgow, became important in If you would like a plain video with just the , determining the sites of the cotton industry. let me know and I will happily send you the large file of With the availability of cotton from overseas, cotton my own video of the engine and the weaving room. But processing and production soon became one of the most first, let’s look at how all this came about. important local industries and led to the regional The Cotton Industry and development of towns such as , Oldham and Cotton was grown and processed on a domestic scale Rochdale. in many places around the world, but India and America from Greater were cheaper but were the major growers back in the early 1700s. Egypt also superior in quality to those made in the rest of did not come on the scene until the early 1800s. Europe. Cloth made in the north-west was re-exported for In the UK the processing of cotton, as with many trade with Africa, where light woven goods, silks and other products, was a cottage industry that employed cotton were popular on the west African slaving coast. anyone in the household over 7 years old! I read In parallel with the developments in England, during somewhere that in later years this was increased to the the second half of the 17th century, the newly established age of ten and the children were forced to have 6 hours of the East India Company (EIC) in South school each week so that they could read and write Asia started to produce finished cotton goods in quantity enough to do the clerical work for their parents, who for the UK market. were for the most part illiterate! I won’t dwell here on the EIC: “The Company” (that’s Lancashire was perfect for making cotton cloth. The a story in itself) other than to say that having started in damp climate made the cotton fibres less likely to snap 1600, by the mid 1800s, it was a ruthless, quasi- during and the region’s long tradition of small government/commercial enterprise that handled half of scale production meant a ready supply of skilled the worlds trade! labour, although growth was so rapid that additional The imported garments competed with, and acted as a labour, including children, had to be brought in from substitute for indigenous wool and linen produce, outside Lancashire. As the cotton thread was not strong resulting in local weavers, spinners, dyers, shepherds and enough to use as warp, either wool or linen or fustian farmers petitioning their MPs and in turn the United had to be used and this was available locally. Kingdom government for a ban on the importation, and During the 18th and 19th centuries, much of the later the sale of woven cotton goods. This was eventually imported cotton came from slave plantations in achieved via the 1700 and 1721 Calico Acts. These Acts the Southern United States. However, in periods of (Continued on page 11)

Page 10 The Queen Street Mill (cont…)

(Continued from page 10) By the end of the decade, had banned the importation and later the sale of finished pure developed the . This invention had two cotton produce, but did not restrict the importation of raw important consequences: it improved the quality of the cotton, or the sale or production of fustian (heavy cotton thread, which meant that the cotton industry was no cloth). longer dependent on wool or linen to make the warp, The exemption of raw cotton saw thousands of bales of and it took spinning away from the artisans' homes to cotton being imported annually, from Asia and the specific locations where fast-flowing streams could Americas, forming the basis of a new indigenous industry provide the water power needed to drive the larger referred to above, initially producing cloth for the domestic machines. The Western Pennines of Lancashire market, though more importantly, triggering the became the centre for the cotton industry. development of a series of mechanised spinning and Not long after the invention of the water weaving technologies to process the material. frame, combined the principles of Indian cotton textiles, particularly those from Bengal, the and the Water Frame to produce continued to maintain a competitive advantage up until the his . This provided even tougher and 19th century. In order to compete with India, Britain finer cotton thread. invested in labour-saving technical progress, while Steam implementing protectionist policies such as bans Along with the development of the cotton and tariffs to restrict Indian imports. Britain eventually processing technology, the demand for more power to surpassed India as the world's leading cotton textile supply the mills was a driver for improvements in manufacturer in the 19th century. power, first in water driven systems, then steam. As people made improvements in the processes, it started The was also to benefit from other to have a major impact on the cotton industry as manual developments of the period. As early as 1691, Thomas labour was replaced by water power and then by steam. Savery had made a vacuum steam engine. His design, The mechanised spinning and weaving of cotton fibre into which was unsafe, was improved by Thomas fabric began in Britain and spearheaded the industrial Newcomen in 1698. revolution which really got moving in the late 1700s. In 1765, James Watt further modified Newcomen's Cotton Processing Improvements engine to design an external condensing steam engine. The early advances in weaving had been halted by the Watt continued to make improvements on his design, lack of thread. The spinning process was slow and the producing a separate condenser engine in 1774 and a weavers needed more cotton and wool thread than their rotating separate condensing engine in 1781. Watt families could produce. formed a partnership with businessman Matthew In the 1760s, improved thread Boulton and together they manufactured steam production when he invented the Spinning Jenny (below). engines which could be used by industry. The improved steam engine invented by James Watt and patented in 1775 was initially mainly used for pumping out mines, for water supply systems and to a lesser extent to power air blast for steel furnaces, but from the 1780s it was applied to power machines. This enabled rapid development of efficient semi- automated factories on a previously unimaginable scale in places where water power was not available or not steady throughout the seasons. Early steam engines had poor speed control, which caused thread breakage, limiting their use in operations like spinning; however, this problem could be overcome by using the engine to pump water over a to drive the machinery. To be continued… Next issue we will look at the progress and decline of the cotton industry, and specifically at the history and current state of Above This was the Spinning Jenny that was in early commercial use. preservation of the Queen Street Mill in Lancashire. Image from R. Marsden 1884 book on Cotton Spinning (Public domain) Article by Russell Williams

Page 11 The ubiquitous BR 4MT locomotive OUR Charles Coppack has a great interest in the club’s Garden Railway. He was instrumental in 2016 in acquiring a set of Code 180 rail points (turnouts), to initially demonstrate to members the only close-scale Gauge 1 bullhead rail track available on the market. Charles owns a Bowande miniature 1 version, at /32 scale, a gas fired Gauge 1 (45mm) British Railways 4MT class locomotive, numbered 80136. Its full size counterpart, built at Brighton Works, is alive and well and is Above: Gauge 1, 1/32nd scale miniature 4MT, 80136, owned by Charles Coppack one of the operating 4MT preserved and pictured at the NDMES Garden Railway in March, 2017. Photo: John Shugg locomotives of which only 15 survive in the UK. The 4MT class was designed by Robert A. Riddles when 80136 is now located at the North Yorkshire he was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LMS. A total of 155 Moors Railway, having entered BR service in locos were built in the 1950s: 130 at Brighton, 15 at May, 1956, and ended its BR service after only Works and 10 at Doncaster Works. 9 years 2 months, in July, 1965. British Rail (BR) was the result of the 1948 Nationalisation by the British Government of the four major private railway companies: LMS, LNER, SR and GWR, along with some subsidiary railways then also operating in the UK. Equally at home hauling passenger cars or freight wagons, the 4MT was widely used on all BR tracks, but not in the Western Region initially. Its driving wheels were 5ft 8in in diameter and boiler pressure was 225 psi, with 18” x 28” cylinders. It was a versatile tank engine from all accounts. 80136 recently underwent a complete overhaul, mostly at Crewe and then finished at Grosmont (pronounced Growmont) in late July Above: The real 80136 at Grosmont, North Yorkshire. 2016. Image: Wikimedia Commons - Photographer Adrian Pingstone (public domain). Article by John Shugg

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